Rocket Trail

Developed between 2017 and 2020, Rocket Trail is an extensive research project and film collection led by the studio that explores the multifaceted nature of the rocket. This project investigates how a single object—born from gunpowder over 1,100 years ago—has evolved across different cultures to evoke powerful, and often contradictory, emotions: from deep existential fear and death to spiritual awakening and technological hope.

The design and research team, led by Lucas Muñoz Muñoz in collaboration with Nanu Youttananukorn and Giuditta Vendrame, conducted a context-specific journey through territories in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. The project synthesizes this two-year exploration into a series of films and exhibitions that render the "trail" of the rocket not just as a physical path, but as a psychological and ritualistic phenomenon. From its origins in China and the rocket festivals in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, to its contemporary role in global vertical expansion, the rocket is analyzed as an artifact that extends the physical boundaries of our planet and imagination.

Technically, the project resulted in a multi-chapter film collection and various exhibition formats (including a notable showcase in late 2020). Each chapter offers a different lens on how this artifact activates the humans around it. The studio focused on the duality of the rocket: its capacity to reduce living spaces to ashes or to extend human reach into outer space, embodying the tension between destruction and progress.

As part of the studio’s broader research scale, Rocket Trail exemplifies an approach that transcends traditional object design. By utilizing filmmaking and field research as primary tools, the team documents the "social life" of technical objects, proving that design can be a powerful medium for cultural anthropology and for understanding the complex relationship between humanity and its vertical aspirations.